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Topic: Worst Episode Opinion (Read 56309 times)

Gorilla Watson

For me, nothing the boys turned out was as bad as Sweet and Hot. I saw it years ago and I still have nightmares.

Beer Barrel Polecats comes close though, with the extensive usage of older footage that didn't even make sense in places. Why did they suddenly want to look for 41144 and break him out? Why did the guard suddenly look grossed out and run away to go throw up? I think there might be a way to combine this short with So Long Mr. Chumps so everything would make sense. Would anyone be interested in a new topic where we can write up a combination of such shorts, and of and originals and their actual remakes, to make one long storyline? If so, what forum should it be in? I'm thinking General Discussion.

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Curley91

The reason the guard was grossed out was because Curly made his famous "paint sandwich" again, but it had been edited out. I don't understand why that part is cut out so often, just because Curly says "They generally hang out on the gallows". I don't see anything wrong with that.

With this topic brought back to the forefront I thought I'd share my thoughts. I have not yet seen all 190 Columbia shorts, but out of the 65 or so I have seen I can't pick a "bad" one. However, when thinking of a bad Stooge short, the one that comes to my mind is "Nertsery Rhymes" from the MGM collection. I almost can't stand to watch that one (and when I do I always fast-forward through those never-ending musical numbers). Not an ideal showcase for the comedic genius of the Stooges.

Nertsery Rhymes wasn't too bad. The short that I find pretty boring is The Big Idea. It should have been titled No Idea. I do enjoy watching the MGM shorts from the Healy era. At the least, the historical perspective makes these shorts still relivant. That said, these shorts were mere excuses for MGM to use up some discarded song-and-dance routines from their full-length musicals. Thus, not much thought was put into the writing or execution of these shorts. That said, I do enjoy titles such as Beer and Pretzels and Plane Nuts. I particularly enjoy the song "Merry, Merry World" (correct title?) from Beer and Pretzels. As for the boys' Columbia shorts, I'm not a big fan of such titles as No Dough Boys, Beer Barrel Polecats and Cuckoo on a Choo Choo. The Joe Palma Shemp shorts are hard to watch, as well.

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"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams." - Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder, 1971)

Nertsery Rhymes wasn't too bad. The short that I find pretty boring is The Big Idea. It should have been titled No Idea. I do enjoy watching the MGM shorts from the Healy era. At the least, the historical perspective makes these shorts still relivant. That said, these shorts were mere excuses for MGM to use up some discarded song-and-dance routines from their full-length musicals. Thus, not much thought was put into the writing or execution of these shorts. That said, I do enjoy titles such as Beer and Pretzels and Plane Nuts. I particularly enjoy the song "Merry, Merry World" (correct title?) from Beer and Pretzels. As for the boys' Columbia shorts, I'm not a big fan of such titles as No Dough Boys, Beer Barrel Polecats and Cuckoo on a Choo Choo. The Joe Palma Shemp shorts are hard to watch, as well.

I have to agree, I like Beer and Pretzels and Plane Nuts the most out of their MGM shorts. There is some really funnymaterial in both.

As for Worst Short? I'd have to go with Beer Barrel Polecats, very unhealthy Curly combined with WAY too much stock footage. That one is painful to watch.

You can also easily make cases for any of the Joe Palma Shemp's and Sweet and Hot . I really have a hard time watching any of those.

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"Moronica must expand! We must lend our neighbors a helping hand. We must lend them two helping hands, and help ourselves to our neighbors!"Moe in "You Natzi Spy!"

Larry: Say, when I come back I’ll give you a password.Moe: Brilliant, what’ll it be?Larry: Open The Door!"Studio Stoops"

While I'm really late on this topic I have ten unwatchable stooge shorts to list as my personal crap heap:

All four of the A.D. Shemps round out the first because Columbia's greed of not allowing Shemp to be retired after his death and hiring Joe Palma to stand in for Shemp and wear a hairpiece while having Moe and Larry pretend Shemp is still there.

10. Hot Stuff(1956) How many of us think that Palma's "eep-eeping" and armflapping is just plain stupid? I know I do.

9. Rumpus in the Harem(1956)At the beginning Moe reads a note left by Shemp saying he's gone to open the resturant. Who do you think your fooling Columbia? We know he's not there!!!!!!

8. Scheming Schemers(1956) While most fans give this short a good score because Palma is used for only one scene and Moe and Larry try to move on with a Two Stooge act, Shemp's abesence is too noticeable and Cohn rejected this idea anyway and got Joe Besser so it doesn't get off so easily.

7. Commotion in The Ocean(1956) Boring,tired and clustrophobic. Plus Gene roth filling in for Shemp is very very lame. I can't believe Moe and Larry were forced to endure this mess on top of overusing Shemp's name. Yes, I know guys it's Harry cohn's fault this happened and he couldn't give a rat's ass about Shemp being dead and used him anyway.

6. Halfwits Holiday(1946( Released early 1947)While alot of fans are sentimental about this short, I don't excuse it for being made. There's is nothing decent about this short and it's not just because Curly looks so deathly ill here, it's the fact that poor Jerry was forced by the stuffed shirts of Columbia to work on the day he had a stroke. Jules White doesn't get off either. If he had a heart, He would have scrapped this short after Curly's stroke or would have reworked it with Shemp instead while probably would have made alot more sense. But unfortanely, White didn't edit the short and Moe and Larry had to do a pie fight scene without Jerry and his life was greeted with abject pain, misery, and an untimely grave.

5. Beer Barrel Polecats(1946) There is nothing, I mean Nothing good about this cheesy ass looking piece of trash that looks like it was edited in just under a few hours. How could someone enjoy this horrible rehased piece of junk that uses stock footage from "So Long Mr. Chumps" and "In the sweet pie and Pie" with a plot so convoluted that you can't figure out what the hell is going on?! Look, I know Jerry was sick, and I know Jules White was just trying to cover up his illness by using stock footage but everyone knows that just seven years later in 1952 using stock footage became a standard routine pratice of Columbia's Short subject department to cut production costs. And if you excuse that then wouldn't it have been alot easier for Jules White to use stock footage from "Hoi Polloi" and "Three Little Beers"? That would have made more sense. Instead the title"Beer Barrel Polecats" is an understatement. It's smells terrible.

4. Rythm and Weep(1946) Does anyway like "Gents without Cents"? Watch that instead of this garbage. not only is Curly very ill here (he talks and moves slow) but Jerry looks ragged and has lost some weight here and the short is bogged down by horrible singing and dancing and poor acting. I'm just thankful that Columbia didn't do a remake of this crapper with Joe Besser and like Shemps #1 said, Even if Curly wasn't sick he wouldn't have been able to save this train wreck anyway.

3. Hoofs And Goofs(1957) While I like many people consider the Joe Besser era to be the lowest point of the Stooge's career, There were only three shorts that I choose for this list that are the worse of the shorts he made with Moe and Larry and Besser's first stooge effort blows garbage. It's unfunny, tired, lame and has the ability to make even the most die hard fan of Joe Besser ashamed to be a fan. This shorts sucks really horribly and the talking horse bit is old hat and lame. This screenplay was written by Felix Adler and it kinda of makes me wonder if Clyde Bruckman and Shemp Howard were alive then, would they really have wanted to make this mess?

2. Sweet and Hot(1957(released in 1958)While every single stooge fan ranks this is the cream of the crap the #1 worst stooge short of all time. It falls right behind another one that I consider worse. Sweet and Hot is by far beyond bad! It's abysmal and atrocious. Completely unbearable and unwatchable. Is there anything at least average about this short? Well.........No. Mauriel Launders can't sing, she can't dance. She can't even act!!!!She was basically the Heather Locklar of her day, but even Locklar can act better them Launders. I remember watching this back in 1996, but of course I was new to the stooges and only a kid then I actually liked it then. Which leads to the theory that by '57 when it became apparant that the short subjects department was going to be shut down that it was made for children who were watching them at Saturday movie matenees then. When you watch the short you can't even fathom what Moe,Larry and joe had to endure and the fact that when Launders sang" Let's fall in Love" the farm animals were probably begging for mercy not singing alone. Yeah Stooge once asked this question several years ago: "Why the Hell was this Made into a stooge short?" Plus could we really give a damn about Tiny about to be spanked by her father?(Moe)Mabye she had it coming. When it came on AMC in 2001, I watched it again by then I was older and in my late teens. It was so bad that after about two minutes I changed the channel.Besser doesn't lie, If he himself siad it was a turkey, then it must be that BAD.

1. Horsing Around(1957)Like xraffle, I pick "Horsing Around" as THE worse stooge short ever!!!!!!!!How bad is it? Well in '96 I saw it for the first time on the Family Channel and thought of it as the stupiest thing I'd ever seen in my life. I remember that I was NOT laughing while I watched it! I shrugged it off as pure "nonsene" and promised myself to change the channel whenever it came on, thankfully The Family Channel rarely aired this piece of rotting crap. Then in 2001 AMC played it. not just once. But several times a week!Pissing me off something awful. First of all I thought to myself" What the hell is wrong with Columbia? What were they smoking when they decided to make a sequel to "Hoofs And Goofs"? If you think the idea which was doomed from the start, then wait till you see all the things that are wrong with this short. First of all if the think that the crapper "Hoofs and Goofs" is bad then this is pure monotomous stooge hell! The acting sucks, it actaully looks like the stooges are reading off of cue cards. If the editing on "Beer Barrel Polecats" was cheesy then on here it looks like it was made on a $ store camera. The diolouge? Sounds like it was made up during a night of partying and getting wasted. And the short even feels like it was shot in just 3 hours!3 hours!!!!Come on, I know A.D. Shemps were made in one day but this looks like it was shot in just under a few hours!

And the subplot? Pffff! Sounds like the writers were drunk, high, and comepletely out of ideas. Bertie has a baby colt huh? Really really pathetic. After I watched in 2001 I really really felt like committing suicide. I would do anything to get the nigtmare of having the Stooge babysit "Snapps" removed from my brain. I even tried watching this again in 2003 but couldn't make through a minute before I changed the channel. Sony, if you hear us fans please spare us of the negetives and do what you can to destroy this atrocity do what you can to make it stop existing!Please!

Ok, I'll bump the thread...Couldn't sleep a few nights ago, so I slipped in a Stooge compilation tape. And there it was, the absolute nadir of Stoogedom: SAPPY BULLFIGHTERS. Yes, I know it was their Columbia swan song, but it just seemed like a race to be the first one out the door by all concerned! The grotesque editing of the stock footage and the sheer exhaustion oozing from Moe and Larry makes it excrutiating to sit through. Strangely enough, I actually like Besser's performance; he actually has a little energy and tries to make a go of it. Otherwise, a waste of celluloid.

It's interesting that you should mention Sappy Bullfighters. The editing was, indeed, problematic. In fact, if one listens closely during the scene where Joe is riding the bull, you can actually hear Curly's voice in the background. That's sad.

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"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams." - Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder, 1971)

1. Horsing Around(1957)Like xraffle, I pick "Horsing Around" as THE worse stooge short ever!!!!!!!!How bad is it? Well in '96 I saw it for the first time on the Family Channel and thought of it as the stupiest thing I'd ever seen in my life. I remember that I was NOT laughing while I watched it! I shrugged it off as pure "nonsene" and promised myself to change the channel whenever it came on, thankfully The Family Channel rarely aired this piece of rotting crap. Then in 2001 AMC played it. not just once. But several times a week!Pissing me off something awful. First of all I thought to myself" What the hell is wrong with Columbia? What were they smoking when they decided to make a sequel to "Hoofs And Goofs"? If you think the idea which was doomed from the start, then wait till you see all the things that are wrong with this short. First of all if the think that the crapper "Hoofs and Goofs" is bad then this is pure monotomous stooge hell! The acting sucks, it actaully looks like the stooges are reading off of cue cards. If the editing on "Beer Barrel Polecats" was cheesy then on here it looks like it was made on a $ store camera. The diolouge? Sounds like it was made up during a night of partying and getting wasted. And the short even feels like it was shot in just 3 hours!3 hours!!!!Come on, I know A.D. Shemps were made in one day but this looks like it was shot in just under a few hours!

And the subplot? Pffff! Sounds like the writers were drunk, high, and comepletely out of ideas. Bertie has a baby colt huh? Really really pathetic. After I watched in 2001 I really really felt like committing suicide. I would do anything to get the nigtmare of having the Stooge babysit "Snapps" removed from my brain. I even tried watching this again in 2003 but couldn't make through a minute before I changed the channel. Sony, if you hear us fans please spare us of the negetives and do what you can to destroy this atrocity do what you can to make it stop existing!Please!

Oh, please don't say that! Don't say anything that will discourage Sony from issuing, even just one, of the Stooges' shorts. I'll admit, the Besser era was not the strongest in the Stooges' history. That said, as a Stooges fan, I'd LOVE to see all 190 shorts issued on DVD someday. With the success of the new DVD set covering 1934-1936, I may get my wish. I'm not superstitious, but, please, don't say anything that could jinx us getting the Besser shorts on DVD. I say, when the time comes, and the Besser shorts are finally released, all you have to do is just skip over any titles you don't like.

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"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams." - Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder, 1971)

Joe Besser was a great comedian and even kept the stooge legacy alive but he wasn't a stooge. Nuff said.

I agree that in many ways, Joe didn't seem to fit in as a Stooge. His sissy persona seemed a better match with Abbott & Costello. He was great as Stinky, the recurring character he played on A&C's TV series. The sissy bit, however, didn't seem to adapt very well to the Stooge's style of comedy, which was much more physical. That said, just because Besser wasn't a perfect fit for the Stooges, doesn't mean that he was a terrible comedic performer. He just had a style that was better suited for other formats and venues. At least Besser had a fully realized persona, as opposed to Joe DeRita who had no distinctive style at all. While I do enjoy both of the Joes, neither were as strong as Curly or Shemp, who were both extremely gifted physical performers.

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"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams." - Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder, 1971)

At this point the video shows a clip of DeRita in "The Three Stooges Meet Hercules" ...(no mention of Besser, here, but Besser also doesn't fit the moniker of a "fat clone")it seems DeRita rates a tiny spot in Jump 'n the Saddle Band's tune, at least.

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The tacks won't come out! Well, they went in ... maybe they're income tacks.

At this point the video shows a clip of DeRita in "The Three Stooges Meet Hercules" ...(no mention of Besser, here, but Besser also doesn't fit the moniker of a "fat clone")it seems DeRita rates a tiny spot in Jump 'n the Saddle Band's tune, at least.

"Fat clone" fits the metre of the song, though!

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A jerk with a quirk may do the work. Or, a turk with a dirk may stick a clerk! Gut gesagt?

I haven't seen Sweet and Hot, which seems to be the common answer, but Rhythm and Weep is very hard to watch both because of its terrible plot and Curly's deteriorated condition. I've been told he's in worse shape in Three Little Pirates which I haven't seen in years. Can't imagine him being any worse than he was in R and W.

Gotta say, based on the 150-160 shorts I have seen Rhythm and Weep is by far the worst.

Well, thanks to a very Stoogetastic member here, I had the honor of watching "Pies and Guys" for the first time in more than 15 years. I was REALLY young when I saw it last, but I remember bits and pieces..

Now let me first say I like the Besser's. Of course, on their own level. I've always been a Shemp fan, and of course Curly.. but I don't hate the Joe's. The man may not have fit in with the Stooges brand of humor, but overall he wasn't THAT bad. Mind you, I still haven't watched all of the Besser's in a long time (many since the Family Channel), so my opinion could change now that I have all 190 shorts - but I've always had a heart for Joe. Moe and Larry with their slick-backed hair in the later episodes alwayas made me chuckle. I watched Quizz Whizz last night and couldn't believe how different Larry looked! That and Moe's line (when talking about Joe) "Hair color? Skin!". There were some great one-liners in the later years.

Anyway, that aside, I've always liked Half-Wits Holiday better than Hoi Polloi (maybe because it was Emil Sitka's first short), so you'd think I'd enjoy this one. Honestly, PIE AND GUYS was kind of pathetic.. I like the fact that Sitka was brought back as Sappington, but I didn't like the guy who played Quakenbush. Gene Roth is always enjoyable, but in this one his role was so small he was pretty insignificant. The problem with this one is that the short is basically a word-for-word remake - with extensive stock footage from both Hoi Polloi AND Half-Wits at the end - but it just doesn't work! Moe aged significantly in 10 years from 46 - 57, so when Simona Boniface talks to him from HALF-WITS, it's blatantly obvious that the footage is recycled. I still don't understand why Besser didn't throw any pies, except for getting hit twice and not doing anything else.. then of course the end of the short is the same ending from Half-Wits with just Moe and Larry (due to Curly's failing health). Very disappointing.

It wasn't unwatchable, it was tolerable.. just a terrible use of stock footage. I think what irked me the most was that they re-shot everyone plowing down Emil Sitka, but when they showed him get up with the footprints on his face it was the same scene from Half-Wits Holiday.. and what's worse is the scene "freezes" before it fades into the next one! This isn't a technical glitch from the broadcast; my copy is from 16mm.. terrible editing job from back in the day.

Of course my opinion could change greatly after I re-watch SWEET AND HOT tonight for the first time in 15 years, too.

I always liked all the shorts. Some are better and some are worse. I think the worst ones are the remakes that use too much stock footage. I always thought they should have filmed new footage for every short. The stock footage laden remakes remind me of those "flashback" episodes of Friends. I think that's why the Curly era was the best. It was mostly new footage. The best episodes with Shemp are the ones that have all new footage. Same for the ones with Joe. At least they finally quit doing this when they started making feature films. Except for "Stop! Look! And Laugh!" that is.

I'm the same way with records. I prefer the original albums over greatest hits compilations any day. I think you see what I'm getting at.

I am with you some of the Stooges shorts are better than others. I am not really a fan of using stock footage, but I am a died in the wool Shemp-a-holic. I like the few shorts by him that have no stock footage in them, but I do not mind the ones with. Also in regards to music I am with you I am not a fan of greatest hits compilations. They have to be the true blue thing. Thank you and have yourself a great day.

Diane Elizabeth Hoekstra

Moron4392

Moron4392@sbcglobal.net

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Dog Hambone

I saw Rhythm & Weep this morning on Spike. Curly doesn't appear to be particularly "deteriorated" in it. There are some funny sequences, but overall, it's not one of the best. The girls' dancing scene sucks, & the Stooges' skit (near the end) is not that great. It's watchable, but if I had my druthers, I'd pick something else.

I also saw Rhythm and Weep on Spike this morning. I agree with Dog Hambone; Curly doesn't really come across as deteriorated, but you can definitely tell that he's tired. Also noticed that Curly's hair is particularly long in this one, as opposed to all the other shorts he did where it was cropped 'close to the bone.'

Polecats: because the plot with the pieced together stock footage makes no sense (41144 subplot). It's also a bit of a downer to see an ailing Curly in one scene, cut to the stock footage of a vibrant Curly, and then cut back to the poor, then-present-day, Curly. When you get down to it, sloppy editing makes for a sloppy film.

Businessmen: the plot, in my opinion, isn't that bad. What makes this one of the worst, for me, is the fact that Curly comes across so sick and run down. Don't get me wrong, I'm not gonna go down the "he couldn't act or speak" road, because that's just shitty. The last half of the film, when the Stooges are in their gym clothes, it's obvious that Curly is noticeably thinner. And take a good look at his face when the camera cuts to a close up of him eating the thermometer. His eyes, which always had that twinkle to them, appear dark, vacant and sunken in. That clip by itself, you can't help but think, "Oh my god, 'poor guy was really sick." The man should've been in a hospital, or at home... not on a sound stage.

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"Imagine five things like us in one room?? I can't stand it!" - Curly (Time Out For Rhythm 1941)

I believe that each third Stooge had a bad short or two. I have to agree that BEER BARREL POLECATS is probably one of the worse shorts in the Curly period, but I wasn't a fan of THE YOKE'S ON ME or FLAT FOOT STOOGES EITHER. MERRY MAVERICKS and BUBBLE TROUBLE have to be my least favorite Shemp episodes (Their originals weren't all that good either, though I enjoyed PHONY EXPRESS more over ALL GUMMED UP). And as far as Joe Besser shorts go, it's a half-half thing. I liked about half of his shorts, and tolerated/disliked the other half. I think the big thing was the writing. I don't think Jack White was a great writer. It seemed like his forte was doing remakes, but his originals weren't all that good. I could picture Curly or Shemp in HOOFS AND GOOFS, and mind you there would be some great slapstick, but I don't think it would be much better than the Besser outing (and that was bad, the only thing good about HOOFS was that Moe and Larry kept their traditional Stooge 'dos).

The Shemp remakes are undeniably hard to watch (though there were some good gems), and I think that STONE AGE ROMEOS probably was the cleverest remake, because the cavemen story tied in with the fact that the Stooges shot that footage to cheat the guy out of money.

curlysdame, I agree with you 100 %." Polecats " has to be the worst mix of shorts there is. It just doesn't go together. And in "Businessmen", you can actually see Moe nudging Curly with his elbow to let him know to speak his lines. Very painful to watch.

I definatly agree that "Sweet And Hot" is the worst Stooge Comedy, the only slighly amusing bit is Moe's doc routine!

"Zit", Now You Zit"

I Am the dumbkopt(yeah after reading the script and STILL filming this StoogeBomb guys!

In Three Stooges Scrapbook, they say Coo Coo On A Choo Choo they quote that is the worst stooge comedy, can't agree with that though, they gave it no stars I believe...can't remember how many stars they gave Sweet And Hot.